Who gets more butterflies in their stomachs on the first day of school, parents or kids? I waffle back and forth between feeling/acting like the beginning of the school year is a big deal and trying to downplay it.
Tomorrow is *the day* and we’ve gotten our supplies, visited the classrooms, and tried on every pair of pants in the house to see if any of them are still long enough. (of course not!) I’ve got my reusable sandwich wraps ready (pattern in Sewing Green and here), a few snack bags (lots of tutorials all over the web) along with these new organic cotton canvas food sacks (below left) from Graze Organic that I won from Mindful Momma!
I thought this might be a good time to get back on my soap box about packing trash-free lunches again. Last spring I wrote a post about it after I spoke to our school’s PTA. The statistics about the garbage one school can generate is staggering! Check it out.
Also in Sewing Green is my pattern for the Lunch Tote, seen here made in organic cotton from Harmony Art. My boys are still clinging to their Transformer and Superman lunch sacks, so I haven’t been able to make ones for them yet. Maybe next year. I’ve seen a few Lunch Totes already pop up in the Sewing Green Flickr Group and they look great!
Ok, I’m off to label school supplies and bake cookies. Tummy butterflies are much calmer when you give them cookies, you know. 🙂
I don’t have anyone in the house going back to school this year, but I remember the butterflies.
And the tears (mine) in
Grade one. Nice bags;)
Michele
I am so impressed with the re-usable lunch/snack bags and totes! Brilliant! This is something I want to do, too and I think my husband would love this idea as well.
My son starts Junior Kindergarten soon and I feel those butterflies!
I love the lunch bag, and those snack bags are so cute! I’m packing lunches for a preschooler this year, and I ran across a website for cutting down on lunch waste: http://www.wastefreelunches.org/ It’s amazing how much kids put in the garbage everyday!
I love that Lunch Tote! My hubby takes his lunch every day, mostly in various sizes of mason jars, and I think he would like something to replace his ugly black bag. You never know with men though, sometimes the old black bag is what they need. 🙂
I just made both boys lunches tonight for the first time. I had to use a few ziploc bags. Boo! Because I haven’t made the time to make some snack bags yet even though I have all of the supplies. I am determined to do that this week! I’m going to use the 2nd tutorial that you linked to. That looks exactly like what I had in mind. I’m using the ripstop nylon instead of PUL because I’ve read that PUL isn’t proven to be food-safe but the ripstop nylon is.
Hi TIna,
Please make sure you read the comments on that 2nd tutorial re: nylon.
Hooray for reusing!
Betz
I WOULD be making re-usable lunch sacks, except I do not have a book yet. I really NEED to win that book, OK? I am sewing recycled wool today, so I thought about you. I’ll be putting my stuff into my flickr account.
Thanks for finding the reusable sandwich baggies. I need to find some manly fabric for my husband. I make his lunch everyday. Our little one isn’t out of diapers yet. Thanks again.
Oh how I miss the first day of school. My boys are now men, but I still love to think of new binders, pencils, rulers, etc. What lunchbox is the best? I think they boys had Spiderman, Batman and Knight Rider. Thanks for the memories. Deb @ http://www.drinkingpinkstars.blogspot.com
So I read the comments about nylon and they didn’t have good things to say about the PUL either. Are you still comfortable with the PUL?
Lisa,
The sandwich wrap project is meant to be helpful and create less waste on a daily basis. I hope, as with any project, you make it work for you and tailor it to your own familly’s needs and desires. If you are wary of PUL or other plastics, please don’t use them. I’ve used the plain organic cotton canvas snack sacks in the 1st photo and the food stayed fresh until lunch.
Betz